Spilt Tears
by J. Maria
Summary: BtVSRoswell. A man searching for reason, a woman searching for a purpose
1. Spilt Tears

Title: Spilt Tears

Author: Jmaria aka Jill

Rating: R

Spoilers: Um, I think season 2 of Roswell (the one with Tess getting pregnant), 'Hells' Bells" of Buffy.

Setting: Dusty highway between Sunnydale and Roswell. 

Pairing: Tess/Xander

Disclaimer: Not mine. Never have, never will be. . . 

A/N / Summary: For Jinni, who needs a bit of cheering up. A man searching for reason, a woman searching for a purpose. Tess returns shattered from the woman she once was. (side note, it's been a _really_ long time since I've watched Roswell, and I thought there had been four seasons. . . until I went to a website and found out that there were only three. . .dumb me. I do remember that Tess left pregnant with Max's baby, and I don't remember if she came back in Season 3. . . I'm not sure if she did. Anyway, this might be a three parter.)

****

Spilt Tears

She fell hard into the pavement. Her hands were cut by the asphalt, and her forearms were bleeding. She was still bleeding. Her son . . had they taken her son?

Tess pushed herself up, slowly. She didn't hear the screech of the tires as the car plowed towards her.

* * * * *

Xander Harris slammed on the brakes. The girl had literally fallen from the sky. Just plopped down in the middle of the road. He caught his breath as he stared at her. Then he pushed himself out of the car and raced to her side.

"Are you ok?"

"My baby. . . they took my baby. . ."

"Your baby?"

"Max's son!" She screamed, "They betrayed me!" She sobbed, collapsing to the pavement.

"Ok, I'm gonna take you to a hospital, ok? We'll get you some help."

* * * * *

She shivered as the doctor examined her. The dark haired man had lied. Said she was his sister.

"Willow lost quite an amount of blood. She was indeed pregnant, and I won't lie to you when I say I think she abandoned the child. It's common among young mothers to -"

"She didn't ditch the baby, doc. I think I know my kid sister well enough to say that Willow didn't dump the baby." Xander said seriously.

"We've given her some medication, and removed the afterbirth. . . It's strange, Mr. Harris." The doctor said pensively.

"What's strange?"

"It's almost as if someone pulled out the child and left her." The doctor smiled brightly at him. "Well, you're all set to leave. Have a nice day."

Tess had wrapped her arms around her. She barely listened to what the doctor had said. The man. . Harris, was talking to her. But she wasn't listening.

"Come on, sis. We're gonna take you home." He said loudly.

"Don't have a home. That's my punishment." She muttered. "That's what I get for killing Alex. . . "

"Sis, hehe, you didn't kill me. Come on, Willow. . . It's time to get you home."

* * * * *

__

Harbing Hotel, an hour later. . . 

Xander paced. She hadn't spoken in an hour. Not one word since they left the hospital. He could only come to one conclusion about what happened to her baby.

"A demon took your baby, did it?" He blurted out.

"A what?" She blinked out of her stupor.

"A demon. I bet a chaos demon. Was it all dripping pus and antlers?" She was sitting on the edge of the bed. He squatted down in front of her, his face all hopeful. 

"What?" She blinked.

"Or, um, a fear demon? Oh! A big snake? Some like to eat babies?"

"What are you talking about?

"The evil things that tore your baby out of you. They were demons, right?"

"No, they were aliens." She said simply. She shoved a hand through her curly blond hair, sighing heavily.

"Well. . . those are kinda like demons. I mean, we can track them, right?" He asked, hopefully.

"Yeah, all the way out in space. Sure we can track them."

"Well, what do they want with your son?"

"They want to - I don't know. Kill him, maybe, so they can claim rule over my home."

"Ok, so we find someone who knows -"

"They'll be after Max now. And Isabel. He wants Isabel."

"Max?"

"No, Kivar."

"Ok, lost again."

"Kivar was the - it's gonna take a while to explain this. You might want to sit down. She said, patting the mattress.

__

Another hour later. . .

Xander didn't know what to say. And that was a first. They'd been taking about their pasts, comfortable with everything that had been said between them. She stared at him for a moment.

"You know, it's funny. The one person I did the most harm to shares the same name with the one person who saves me."

"That Alex guy you killed?"

"Yeah. . . "

"You're not gonna do that power thing with your mind on me, right?"

"No. . . they did something to me that won't let me use my powers. . . they want Max and the others to kill me. . .It's not as if I don't deserve it."

"Well, there's the positive attitude I was looking for."

"Sorry, Xander. . .I just can't . . .I can't." She sighed. 

"We can go to Roswell."

"They'll kill me, Xander. They won't ask any questions. They'll just kill me."

"I won't let them. . . I'll stand in their way. . .They won't kill a helpless human, right?"

"Xander."

"And if that doesn't work, I'll call this girl I know. She's a witch, you'd like her. She can to a tracking spell or something. We'll find your son."

"Zan."

"What?"

"No, that's my son's name. Z-A-N."

"Oh. Well, we'll find little Zan. And then, if the people in Roswell don't like the sitch, we'll go to Sunnydale. . . "

"And face the woman you left at the alter?"

"OK, then we'll go to L.A."  
"What's in LA?" Tess asked as Xander started packing his stuff up. He looked over his shoulder and smiled.

"My ex-girlfriend." He grinned at the sight of her face.

"Oh, great. Another female you've harassed?"

"Nah, Cordy loves me."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I bought her prom dress for her."

Tess shook her head as she followed him out the door. She did a double take of the room. She watched as he grabbed the last of his things. Then something hit her.

"You called me Willow, back in the hospital."

"Yeah." He opened the car door for her.

"Why?"

"Well, I didn't know your name. . .and so I said you were Willow Harris. My sister."

"I look nothing like you."

"Well, doctors are kinda dumb that way."

"Oh. Why'd you pick Willow?"

"Thought it was more believable than Buffy Harris." He said, plopping in the driver's seat. He grinned over at her.

Xander gunned the engine as Tess let out a little laugh.

"What kind of name is Buffy?" She giggled.

* * * End Part* * * 


	2. Spilt Lies

Title: Spilt Tears

Part: 2/3 Spilt Lies

Author: Jmaria

Rating: R

Disclaimer: Joss and Katims own all.

Summary: Going home

A/N: This part has been partially written (read: rough outline) for months, but it took me so long to get it out do to RL issues. On a side note, fourth part in my day long quest to get 20 new installments or stories out on my 20th birthday, which is today. Yes, I am pathetic, but it was this or watch more MTV, and I can't watch any more MTV

**__**

Spilt Lies

Roswell, NM

They were five miles from the outskirts of the town of Roswell. Five little, measly miles, darn it! And the blonde chose to get cold feet now. Not that he should really be shocked. She hadn't really been all that excited to get to Roswell in the first place. He groaned as she rolled over in the bed, her hand smacking down hard on his face.

Xander Harris groaned under the blonde's hand, shoving it off of his face. He still wondered why he was sharing a bed with her. She was a self proclaimed cold-blooded killer, and he was still trying to come to grips with leaving his bride at the altar.

If Xander were being really honest with himself, he'd finally admit that he was starting to forget Anya, and that Tess' need for a protector was yanking his thoughts from the woman he'd thought he'd loved. Tess had slept in her own bed, weeks ago, when they first met. But then the nightmares started, and one night, Xander woke up with her in his arms. They'd slept in the same bed, side by side for the last four weeks.

"Tess, wake up."

"Five more minutes, Nasato." She pouted, yanking the pillow over her head, kicking at his legs through the sheet that she'd hogged all night long. Again.

"Nope, today's the day. And I'm Xander." He growled, yanking the pillow away.

Her green eyes popped wide open, her mouth forming a perfect O. She blinked a few times before jumping to her feet and bolting for the bathroom. And it would have worked too. If she hadn't been tangled up in the bed sheets. She landed with a loud oof. Xander jumped up and bent to her side. She glared up into his grinning face.

"I don't think you can put this off for much longer, Tess." His face grew serious. "Baby Zan is in trouble."

Tears formed in her eyes as she thought of Max's son. Her son. She knew she had to tell Max what had happened to baby Zan. If Khivar had Zan, then what true hope was there that her son would even be alive?

"Fine, drop me off on the edge of town." Tess said quietly.

"Nope, I'm taking you to the Crashdown. Gotta make sure you go through with it." Xander grabbed her clothes and tossed them to her. "Get dressed, we're leaving in fifteen minutes."

"Xander, I have to do this on my own." Tess shouted.

"Well, I wasn't planning on helping you dress."

"Not that! Going, facing all of them again. I - I can't put you at risk. You've done nothing but help me. I won't risk it."

"Neither will I. Which is why I'm going with you."

"Xander, -"

"You're afraid they'll hurt you? That's why I'm going with. Didn't I make that pretty clear earlier. Cause that's what I was going for."

"I meant you could get hurt. Khivar stripped me of my powers. I can't protect you if they try to hurt you." Tess' voice wobbled a little.

"But that means you can't protect yourself either, Tess."

"Yes, but they don't know that."

"All the more reason for me to go with."

"You're going to drive me to drink."

"As long as I'm driving, I'll take you anywhere." Xander grinned at her. But when Tess didn't smile back, he wrapped an arm around her. "Look, I won't let anything happen to you. It'll be ok, and they'll help us find baby Zan."

It felt odd, driving back through town. Tess pulled the sunglasses over her eyes, blocking out the bright sunlight. Xander pulled into the parking space directly in front of the Crashdown Cafe. Her eyes were locked on the front window.

"All right, I go in, see if these kids are in here, then I signal to you to come in. You remember the signal, Tess?" Xander asked her.

"This is idiotic." She turned away from the window.

"Tess, can you please work with me here?" He was frustrated with her. He had every right to be.

"You turn, face me and scratch the side of your nose. But your little signal is stupid." She sighed.

"Why?"

"Because they're all in there. I can see them from here. They're all at the counter."

"Oh. Who's who?"

"The guy with the long hair is Michael. The leggy blonde is Isabel, and the blonde in the alien antenna is Maria. The brunette is Liz." Tess said the last name with a little contempt in her voice, even though she tried to choke it down. "Max is the black haired guy, and the stockier brunette is Kyle."

"Michael, Isabel and Max are the aliens, right?"

"Yes."

"Max is Zan's father and Isabel's brother?"

"Yes."

"Maria is Michael's girlfriend and Kyle is Liz's ex?"

"Yes."

"That would make Liz the angry girlfriend."

"Yes."

"Quite the little incestuous group."

"What?" Tess was taken aback.

"All right. I go in first, tell this Max guy I need to speak to him, and then you follow."

"Xander -"

He was already out of the car and marching to the front doors. It was cooler inside the cafe. He made an indirect beeline to the counter, sitting a seat over from Max. The group of friends all gave each other little looks before breaking up, and for a second they reminded him of the Scoobies. Michael returned to the kitchen, and Maria went to one of the tables. Kyle and Isabel went over to an empty booth, but Liz stayed to talk to Max for a second more before going to wait on Kyle and Isabel.

"Your girlfriend?" Xander asked when Max caught him watching Liz.

"Yeah."

"So you're a townie then?"

"Yeah."

"I'm a tourist. As you probably could tell with the townie crack. Xander Harris." Xander smiled brightly at Max, willing him to smile back and take his hand.

"Max Evans. Are you staying here long?"

"Depends." Xander braced himself, as Max's hand faltered in him.

"On what? If you don't mind me asking." Max gave him a smile that he guessed was supposed to make him think that it wasn't a probing question.

"Actually, it depends on you. Can we talk in private?"

"All right." Max made eye contact with Liz before slowly rising and heading to the back.

Tess watched nervously as Xander followed Max into the backroom. Then she watched as Liz, Isabel and Kyle followed. They were going to hurt him. Or at least ambush him. Tess slipped out of the car and headed for the back entrance. She couldn't let anything happen to him.

Xander knew the others followed them. It wasn't a bad idea, but he could have come up with something better.

"So, why does it depend on me?" Max demanded.

"Well, mostly because she's vulnerable and afraid of you and your little gang."

"She? She who?" Liz demanded.

"Look, let's just say I know her secret, which means I kinda know yours."

"What?" Kyle asked, shaking his head.

"Who is _she_?" Maria demanded.

"She is me." Tess said suddenly, as the light from outside glared into the little room. "Hi guys."

Liz launched herself at Tess the second the words were out of her mouth.

Los Angeles, CA

Cordelia Chase raced into the room where baby Connor was crying for his bottle. She was as tired, hungry and cranky as the infant. She picked him up and put the bottle to his mouth. Connor sucked greedily on the bottle. She smiled down at the little boy, and as she sank into the rocking chair, she let her eyes drift close for a second.

Suddenly the air in the room started to shift, and a bright blue light burst through the room, directly above the empty crib. Cordelia's eyes flung open as she heard a baby wail in fear. Her eyes shot down at Connor in her arms, but his mouth was still fixed tightly around the bottle. Lorne poked his head through the door.

"What's wrong with Connor?"

"Nothing! That scream came from the crib." Cordelia handed Lorne Connor and tip-toed her way over to the screaming crib.

Tucked inside, on top of Connor's blanket was a naked, wriggling newborn. Cordy's eyes widened in shock. There was a small tattoo on the inside of it's arm that looked like a triangle. She turned to Lorne.

"You better go get Wes and Angel."

"Why, what is it? A demon?"

Cordelia scooped up the other baby, wrapping his body in Connor's blanket. Lorne looked at the baby and then back at baby Connor.

"Nope, Angel just became somebody else's daddy."

__

Roswell, NM

Xander jumped in front of Tess just as Liz's hand came arching across his face. A long stream of expletives blurted out of his mouth as Tess clutched at his back. Liz's eyes flashed angrily as Max tried to restrain her. Hurt and angry looks met her at every turn of her head.

"Are you ok, Xander?"

"Xander? Is that why you hooked up with this guy, because he's name is like King Zan's?" Liz cried out angrily. "You killed Alex, you bitch!"

"Hey, I didn't come all this way to be bitch-slapped or get in the middle of a whole _Jerry Springer _brawl I could have stayed in Sunnydale for that." Xander yelled, rubbing his reddening cheek. "You pack quite the wallop for being so tiny." He said to Liz, "You remind me of my friend, Buffy."

"Why are you here, Tess?"

"Khivar took baby Zan, Max. He stripped me of my powers and took the baby."

"Why should I believe you?" Max said calmly.

"Well the fact that she's still sporting the bruises, is no longer showing, and that I picked her up on the desert highway all point to being in her favor." Xander said sarcastically.

An Hour Later, on the Highway Outside of Roswell

"I can't believe Max didn't believe you."

"I can."

"Well, I'll take that as vote for going to L.A." Xander said, switching lanes.

"And how did you come to this conclusion?"

"Well, Dead Boy runs a detective angency in L.A., and if Zan, like you, can't survive up there, then he's still here. They might be able to find him."

"This is a good thing, then?"

"Well, yes and no."

"Why yes and no?"

"My high school girlfriend works for him, but hey, I'm in the mood for another bitch-slap." Xander grinned at her. "Better get some shut-eye."

"Thanks Xander."

Los Angeles, CA

Cordelia dressed the two baby boys in matching outfits. Connor was a month or so older than the other boy. She was snapping pictures of them on the Hyperion's couch in the lobby.

"Any word on the mysterious baby?" Gunn asked, coming in with grocery bags.

"Nope, but we came up with a name for him." Cordy beamed at the two little boys. "Gage. Aren't they just precious?"

A/N 2: Okay. Whadda think?


	3. Spilt Blood

Title: Spilt Tears  
Part: 3/3 Spilt Blood  
Author: Jmaria  
Rating: FR-15  
Disclaimer: Joss and Katims own all.  
Summary:  
A/N: So, we know by now how much is still stuck on my moldering old useless PC. (I kick it daily when I think of all the secrets its got trapped inside its fried mind. No, seriously, I _kick _it. Its still in my room, holding DVDs, books, and magazines. I kick it a lot.). Anything I had saved for my old fics have been lost long ago. So, all that's left is my steel-trap-like mind that's got a thousand and one fic ideas (not to mention original fiction plots as well) elbowing for space. That said, this is one of the few where I actually knew where I was going with it.  
A/N2: Of course, I just can't remember if I knew I was going to make it a Tess/Xander pairing or friendship

**__**

Spilt Blood

__

On the road to L.A.

Xander clutched the steering wheel in a death grip. They'd been driving for days, and the trip seemed so much shorter on the return than it had in getting to Roswell. Of course, Tess had been desperately trying to put it off for as long as she could. Not that he could blame her. There hadn't been a sympathetic soul in that café when Xander had forced her to tell them what had happened.

Khivar had threatened their lives, had sent back messages to wrest Isabel away from Max, and sowing dissention was his idea of child's play. But if there was anything to be learned by the numerous big bads who'd set out to conquer Sunnydale, it was that plans never worked out as well in application as they do on paper.

Xander took a deep breath, and struggled not to tense up when he saw the mile marker that would lead him to L.A.. As much as he hated Angel, and did not want to rely on him for help of any kind, he was kind of excited to see a familiar and non-judge-y face right now. In his few brief calls to Willow, Dawn and Buffy, he'd gotten similar vibes of angry from them. And Anya hadn't even bothered to pick up the phone when he'd tried to call her.

He glanced to his right and watched her sleeping in the passenger seat. Blonde curls rested on her cheek, ruffled by the breeze from the windows. She couldn't be more than seventeen or eighteen, and yet she'd been through hell for most of her life. Someone had to protect her and keep her demons away.

Hitting the turn signal, he slowly pulled into the closest gas station and pulled the one card he swore hed never touch from his wallet. Five minutes later, they were back on the road again.

_

* * *

_

Hyperion Hotel, L.A.

Cordelia and Fred were trying to shield the boys from the on-going battle with Holtz and the Wolfram & Hart fodder when the phone went off. Cordelia, determined to protect little Connor and Gage, ignored it. Paying customers could wait while her boys needed protecting. They'd been fleeing when the beep went off on the machine, and whoever was calling left the message.

__

"Uh, guess who? It's Xander. Normally I would never bother you at all - mainly because of the festering hatred I've always had for you, Dead-boy, but I kinda need your help. There's this girl, and she's looking for her - well, for something she lost, and I figured, hey, Dead-boy's got a detective agency so, yeah. We should be there within a few days. So be seein ya."

* * *

Xander pulled the car into one of the vacant spots in front of the gated entrance to the Hyperion, his hands a bit damp at the prospect of seeing Cordy again. Oh, and Dead-boy and Giles, Jr. Tess looked at him nervously.

"Are you sure they'll be able to help us?"

"Positively." Not at all, but it was worth a shot.

"Right. And they're expecting us?"

"With bells on. Dear God, I hope with bells on, because Dead-boy can be cat-like stealthy sometimes."

He led her from the car, letting her lean heavily against him until they hit the courtyard. The very trashed courtyard that had seen much better days. Along with the busted doors and smoke-stained walls.

"Xander?"

"This is how it always looks," he smiled reassuringly, lying through his teeth just to keep her calm.

But he held her just behind him, ready for anything. Except for the big green demon leaning over Cordelia protectively as she hugged another woman to her.

"Is he supposed to be green?" Tess whispered, peeking over Xander's shoulder.

Three heads snapped up to stare at them, looking frightened and angry. Until recognition hit Cordelia. She was up and running towards him before he could even mutter 'eep'. And then she was hugging him for some crazy reason.

"Oh my god, Xander Harris! What are you doing here? Is Willow here? Buffy? Giles?" She asked hopefully.

"Uh, nope, just me?"

"What good are you then!" Cordelia huffed, pushing away from him. "Who's the high schooler?"

"Tess. The girl I mentioned when I called?"

"You called?" Cordelia looked shocked. "When?"

"Why are _you_ eager to see Willow _and_ Buffy?" he countered.

"Because we need some serious firepower if we ever want to get our boys back!" the green demon pitched in, drawing them back to the well, big green demon in the room.

"Giles, Jr. and Dead-boy go missing?"

"No. Angel's sons went missing."

Xander shook his head as if he hadn't heard right. He did it again when Cordelia's expression didn't change.

"How can Dead-boy have kids? He's _dead_."

It took an hour of explaining to get him to wrap his head around Darla being brought back from the dead as a human, re-turned by Dru, and sleeping with Angel in order to conceive his child. It took another thirty minutes for the whole Darla killing herself to give birth to make sense. Tess looked equally confused, and she had no idea who any of these people were.

"So we'd just settled down into a routine when bamf, another little boy popped up in Connor's crib. Poor little guy," Cordelia's eyes watered as she thought of the babies. "Gage is younger than Connor, but he'd been only a few hours old when he came to us. Hadn't even been cleaned off."

Tess tensed at this. Xander leaned forward nervously, his eyes never leaving Cordelia's.

"This Gage, he didn't have a v-shaped birthmark on him, did he?"

"How'd you know?"

Tess's hand started trembling and her face paled. She reached blindly for Xander's hand. The groping didn't escape Cordelia's notice. But Xander only glared at the upraised brow.

"Because that's _Tess's_ son Zan you found."

"Oh my god," Fred gasped from beside them, her big eyes watering at the revelation.

"Where's my son? Can I see him?" Tess looked dizzy with disbelief. She didn't even notice the looks Cordelia and Lorne were exchanging.

"You can't," a voice said from the doorway.

Angel stepped cautiously into the light, obviously still hurting from whatever had happened two days ago. Wesley and another man were watching him cautiously, as if they were ready to catch him at a moments notice. Xander had a very bad feeling about this.

"What do you -"

"Tess," Xander started, trying to calm her down.

"Holtz took him. Took both of them," Angel said bleakly, the lost look in his eyes far too familiar to the one he'd seen Tess wearing for the last six weeks he'd been with her.

"So you go and get him! Get my son back!" Tess cried, going a little hysterical on him.

"Tess -"

"We can't. Holtz and a woman named Justine took both boys to another dimension we have no hope of reaching," Wesley said sadly.

"But - but -" Tess broke down then, sobbing as if her heart had been torn out of her chest.

Xander scooped her up, holding the hysterical girl to him. She'd only had the slightest hope of finding the only family she had left. He rocked her, trying to calm her down and keep her from hurting herself.

Angel - well, Cordelia, really because Angel was in too similar a place as Tess to be of much help - set them up with a room for the night. Tess nearly passed out from the emotional drain and Xander, his heart breaking for her, slipped out to see what he could do to fix things.

"We'll go to G-man and tap Willow's powers -"

"What, and break the news to Buffy that her ex had a kid?" Cordelia sighed, watching as he paced the length of Wesley's office.

"You were all excited that she was here when I showed up."

"Yeah, but bringing baby-mama drama down on Angel's head isn't going to help anything. And as for Willow," she shrugged. "Dawn left a message for us this morning. Willow's in a bad place, isn't she?"

"She's abusing the power," Xander nodded. "Since when did Dawn start leaving messages for you?"

"Uh, since Buffy died and she came to visit Mr. Summers in L.A. last summer," Cordelia looked shocked that he hadn't known. "She and Angel were holed up in his office for a few hours when she dropped by."

"How did I not know that?"

"Because you were too busy getting engaged to Anya and then pulling a run-away groom?"

"She, ah, told you that?"

"Yeah."

Before he could explain the situation - okay, so even _he_ couldn't really explain it to himself all the reasons he'd left Anya at the altar - a loud, and very familiar shriek ripped through the lobby. Both Sunnydale veterans grabbed the nearest weapon and hauled ass to the source of the shriek.

Which turned out to be a combination of a Dawn shriek and a Lorne shriek, seeing as the green demon and the former Key were setting each other off. Literally. Angel, Wesley, Gunn, and even Tess had come running at the sound.

"Dawnie? What are you doing here?" Xander cried, trying to pull the teen away from Lorne as she bashed him repeatedly with her messenger bag.

_"Xander_? What are _you_ doing here?" came the teenaged accusation. Not that he didn't totally deserve it, seeing as he'd abandoned her like nearly all of the men in her life. And it hit him then, what his running had done to _everyone_ he knew and loved, not just Anya.

"Trying to help a friend. Does Buffy know you're here?"

"Does Buffy even know I still exist? And does she even care?" Hurt ripped through her, her face such a billboard for her emotions.

"Willow and Tara?"

"Once again, with the caring?" Dawn rolled her eyes at him. "And you can get lumped into that category, too you know."

"Dawnie..."

"No, I get it. Glory's down for the count, so who cares about stupid little sister? So done with grown-up bullshit," Dawn snapped, jerking away from him. Xander felt tension building just behind his eyes.

"Wow. And I thought Buffy was the only one with a chip on her shoulder," Cordelia whistled quietly.

"So you came to _Angel_?" Xander glared at Cordelia.

"You'd have rather I'd gone to _Spike_, the _other _vampire my sister screwed instead?"

"Eeeww, Buffy and Spike?" Cordelia shuddered.

"Oh, like the Buffy and Angel visual is so much better?" Xander shuddered himself.

"Uh, for us not caring about who this Buffy chick has boinked, can we get back on the subject of Lolita beating down on Lorne?" Gunn added.

"Don't call her Lolita, that implies you think she's hot," Xander got another case of the shudders.

"Gee, thanks for the lovely blow to my self-esteem," Dawn huffed.

"Does anyone feel that?" Tess said loudly, as if she'd been trying to get everyone's attention for several minutes. Which she had. Her eyes locked on the teenager standing just in front of Xander. Dawn stiffened, as if just noticing something was off.

"Low vibrations on your spine?" Dawn said quietly.

"But getting bigger."

Tess was down the stairs faster than any of them could move, her body colliding heavily with Dawn and Xander, pushing them all out of the way as a giant blue crackling portal opened up in the middle of the ceiling. Team Angel hit the ground as bright blue lightening struck near where they had been. Tess, Dawn and Xander all stared at the portal with open mouths as three figures tumbled through. The last figure shouted something and lightening streaked from his fingers, closing the portal behind them.

"Remind me to never say 'Good plan, bro' to you again," a male voice said from the small pile of bodies.

"Uh, it was an _awesome_ plan, bro, until _you_ decided to pick a fight with the Ankanle _again_. Their brains are ten times smaller than yours, you know," another male - the portal closer, apparently - snapped back like only a sibling could.

"I swear, I must have been drunk or stupid to agree with either of you! Ever!" The only female voice, and this one sounding much older than either of the male voices, yelled at both of them, her hands slapping the backs of both heads.

"Maju, do you have to do that _every _time you're pissed off with us?: the second voice demanded.

"You two ever gonna listen?"

"She's got a point there, kid."

"I'm a month younger than you, so suck it."

The woman rose up, and the group saw her face for the first time. Graying dark auburn hair and a noticeable scar across her throat and face that looked familiar to Team Angel. Both men - well, _boys_ really seemed to close rank on her, noticing they were outgunned and outmanned.

"Aw, crap, Gage!" Maju - or whoever she was - curbed her curse like she'd been doing it for years. "Could you have _not _landed us smack dab in your dad's house?"


End file.
